Artists and art lovers drifted in and out of Studio 53 Fine Art on May 24 to view the fascinating new works of Heidi Seidelhuber and Terry Seaman. The couple, owners of the gallery, attended the event.

New graphite drawings and steel sculptures are on the first floor and new watercolors by the couple are on the third, with the harpsichord played by Aaron Robinson (as well as piano on the first floor).

Seidelhuber's watercolors, in “Afternoon Tide Running,” light dances on water in our harbor, with its depths represented in gradient shades of blue that draw you below and pique your curiosity about what cannot be seen.

The vibrant colors of the umbrellas and people on the deck in “Mitch's Blue Umbrellas” are vibrant in contrast to the harbor, which is various shades of white with hints of green. It is almost as though the life force of the people and activities at the restaurant cause the beauty of the scenery around to pale in comparison. Or, perhaps the sun is shining so brightly the water is white hot with light.

But it's her steel sculptures of containers — paper grocery bags, Chinese take out boxes, a hobo handbag that really catch your eye.

After graduating from college in Chicago, Seidelhuber commuted back and forth from Chicago, where she would show her work, to Seattle, where her family was.

“When I was still in college, my mother used to try to give me suitcases to travel with, but I still used paper bags. It was hard to reconcile my heart being in one place and my feet in another,” she said. Wherever my bags were was home. So, I started making steel traveling sculptures.”

The detail in the paper bags, from the jute handles to the shading where some “crinkling” might be happening is amazing. The detail in the hobo bag, the creases from it sagging a bit because it's not chock full of stuff, and the tautness of the drawstring holding it closed so as not to let what is in there be lost. Well, you just want to touch it.

The steel is smooth and cool under your fingertips, curving gracefully, in some places, yet maintaining that strength and durability we count on it to possess.

Seidelhuber said the take out containers are amazing because of the way they are constructed. That interesting construction shared the same endangered future as the paper bags.

“Will we have paper bags or paper take out containers in the future, or will they become iconic?”

If you are unfamiliar with Seidelhuber and Seaman, you are probably wondering how she has access to steel to begin with. The couple owns Seidelhuber Iron and Bronze works in Seattle, a business begun by Seidelhuber's grandfather in 1906.

Seaman had a dream: to have a gallery. One in which being adventurous and becoming better at one's work was more important than commercial viability. A gallery that was also a studio. One people could walk in to and see him, or other artists, working.

If you walked in on Seaman, you would most likely catch him working on one of his graphite drawings containing 35,000 lines. And he has them all figured out before he starts to draw. Imagine someone listening to a Bach harpsichord piece and illustrating the sounds of the notes. OK, that's sort of what it's like.

“I've always done a lot of mathematical stuff and I have always liked music. The kind of manipulation I do to make those drawings is the same kind of mathematical progressions and inversions as composers like Bach did, but I do it visually.”

Seaman's graphite works are a perfect example of right brain and left brain working in sync.

It's memorizing and challenging. They are intriguing — you can't stop looking at it.

“I am obsessed with it,” Seaman said. “I invented mathematical grids — instead of every shape being exactly the same, none were the same and none were square. After awhile, years, the shapes went away and the geometrics went away and it's all harmonics and waveforms now.”

Seaman began these drawings in 1976. He says he has completed 500 of them over the past 11 years. He says the drawings, and his paintings, “feed off of each other.”

Seidelhuber said even when working with watercolors, its a right/left brain meld. Sometimes, she said, it's hard to identify which side is at work when.

“You have to solve problems to make it a painting using the same wild, intuitive process,” Seidelhuber said. “If you knew ahead of time you wouldn't be surprising yourself.”

Intrigued? You should be.

Studio 53 is located at 53 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.